Monday, 20 March 2017

TRANSFER TALK

Many a Spurs fan were calling for the club to sign 23-year-old (24 in September) Moroccan Sofiane Boufal last summer. He eventually went to Southampton from French side Lille for £15.90 million (€18.34m - AUS$25.55m - US$19.73m) and on yesterday's display we certainly dodged a bullet.

There seem to have been quite a few players we have scouted who have not been up to scratch and I just wonder if Paul Mitchell is as good at his job as fans presume he is. What young talent did he bring to the club who has been a success? David Pleat is credited with finding Dele Alli. I suspect there is far more to Mitchell leaving than we know about. I get the impression he could identify talent to a certain level, but we need players to improve beyond mid-table players.

He came on for the final 21 minutes and was atrocious. He received the ball in space in our half, just as the chap above wants, but as ex-Arsenal striker Alan Smith pointed out, with Shane Long in the middle he simply ran up a blind alley and his skill saw him give a goal kick away.

When he next received the ball he ended up kicking it out for a Spurs throw-in, he got booked for a tackle on Harry Winks, who took great exception to the incident.

Saints fans seem to think he has great talent and needs time to adjust. They have seen him more than we have, but he wasn't even average. Time will tell.